I count myself so lucky because in the process of consulting with other authors I get to learn new things myself. Also, my clients and friends are so incredibly generous with the knowlege they glean from experience. Here is a you-shouldn't-miss-this-one letter from Christopher Meeks, a fellow UCLA Extension Writers' Program instructor. And, yes, of course he gave me permission to include it in my blog. (-: Scroll down and you'll even find some important Barnes and Noble contact information.
Carolyn--
I learned a lot yesterday more about the workings of Barnes and Noble in relation to my signing on June 13th that's sponsored by Barnes and Noble. At one point, I had an executive in the B&N Small Press Department, Diane Simowski, call me, and between her and others, here are a few points I learned that impact POD publishers:
o POD titles are rarely on the shelves of a Barnes & Noble unless two conditions are met: they are returnable, and there's at least a 40% discount.
o B&N's computers show that a book's title is either a short discount or retail. A short discount means it's less than a 40% discount, which means a customer who wants it has to prepay it before it can be ordered. Individual stores are not supposed to order books for their shelves that have less than a 40% discount.
o The Small Press Department really won't help POD publishers because the department is basically meant for old-fashioned publishers who are small (under 4' 11"... kidding). That is, if one self-published a book and has boxes of books in the garage, an author can send his/her book to the Small Press department if it'll match various critieria, as follows:
- B&N will get at least a 40% discount
- Books can be returnable
- There is a marketing campaign, which you have to give details on
- You have a copy of the book (no manuscripts accepted)
- Trade reviews are a plus
- You have a note explaining what makes the book unique
- Your book can be purchased from one of B&N's approved wholesalers; B&N will not purchase directly to a publisher or author; therefore, an author/publisher has to make a distribution deal with one of these wholesalers and still leave a 40% margin for B&N
If you can meet these criteria, then send your book and all the details about it to:
Small Press Dept.
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
122 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10011
Once the book is evaluated and the criteria are met, the Small Press Department will show the book to their buyers, and the buyers decide whether or not to order any books. Diane said each buyer might decide on ordering one or two books to try it out at a store first.
Originally, I was told that for my event, B&N wanted to order my books a month in advance, which meant my book had to be available at that point. That meant if B&N could order it, so could anyone, and it would be available on Amazon.com. Diane underscored what you said, Carolyn, which is publication dates are not all that holy. JK Rowling's books might be strict, but many others are not. Hence, my book with a June 13th publication date might be available in May.
I also learned that my first book, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea, listed at $12.95--which originally had a 40% discount to bookstores--now has only a 15% discount from Ingram to bookstores. That means there's not a lot of incentive for a bookstore to want it, and at B&N, anyone who wants it has to prepay. That kind of kills the book completely at bookstores. If Barnes and Noble can get at least a 40% discount, their computers will show the book as retail, and thus they won't make the customer prepay. Individual stores who like the book--if it gets good press thanks to a good frugal book promoter--can order it more easily for their store. Less than that discount, managers are not supposed to order it at all.
I now need to find out if Lulu can bump up the list price and if so, how much will it cost me? If it costs me $100 to change the price as I think it will, and I bump up the list price to $14.95, which will be the price of my new book, I might make only 32 cents more per book (at a 16% royalty), which means I will have to sell 625 books to pay for the increase, which is unlikely in the next year.
So as I go into the marketing of my new book, these are things on my mind. There's no point in my sending my book to the Small Press Department at Barnes and Noble because my book won't meet the criteria. Some POD publishers now will offer returnability, but that means authors won't be getting as much royalty because money will be held to pay for returns. Then again, if you get more sales in bookstores, it's something to consider. I don't know if Lulu offers that, but I'll investigate.
As for my opening, I'm now told I should bring all the copies of the books, which B&N will sell. They will then order that many books from Ingram and give those books back to me to replace the ones they sold. Why give B$N so much profit? If I sell a hundred books or more that night, I'll show up on the Los Angeles area best seller list. Once on the list, people will take note, and the book can keep selling. I'm told one author who sold over a hundred at her opening landed on the list and stayed there for a year. Now my trick is to get people to come to the reading & publication party on June 13th at the Beverly Hills Library. The reading will be done by four different actors, so it's a paid performance. The library sells $10 tickets for the performance, but I have to say, it's a good show. There will also be food and drinks, so it should make a good night.
Best,
Chris Meeks
Diane L. Simowski
Small Press Dept.
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
122 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10011
tel: (212) 633-3549
fax: (212) 463-5677
dsimowski@bn.com
www.bn.com
------
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.
Showing posts with label net profit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label net profit. Show all posts
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Friday, October 26, 2007
Questions a la Ann Landers--Giving Away 55%? Yikes!
Question: Did you happen to ask Linda Keller, the Community Relations Manager with the Dayton, OH, [She shared some of her wisdom in a previous newsletter of mine.] Barnes & Noble what percentage her store expects from the sale of books featured in her store? Locally, the B&N wants 55%. If this is what B&N stores expect, I might just as well give the 1,100 books that I still have in my spare bedroom away!
Even the local Books-A-Million wants 50%. I didn't write my book to make money but to almost give it away isn't something I relish either. No wonder little guys like me have trouble marketing our books . . .
From Lloyd King, author of To 'Nam with Love, a book of poetry
-----
Dear Lloyd:
I can't speak to any specific B&N location [Lloyd lives in LA] but generally stores want 40%. That's what I've been asked for, at least, and that seems to be the norm. Considering retailing in general, this is a low percent; that's why bookstores also get to return their books. That 55% figure appears to be Amazon's requirement and that of some other online stores.
Having said that, this is not so much a problem involving the bookstores' markup (they, after all, have high overhead and must make a profit to exist!). This is a problem that many self- and subsidy authors make: They don't mark their books up enough (gross profit) to cover the costs of doing business. You know, like a promotion budget, discounts for distributors and for wholesalers and, yes, for their own profit.
Printing books on a digital press (POD) makes it more difficult to be competitive because books printed that way cost more and so it is harder to mark up enough to accommodate these costs and still compete with books that are self- or subsidy- or traditional-published in large quantities on an offset press. Printing on an offset press costs less and less per book as the runs (number of books) increase in size. Books printed in huge quantities in China can cost so little that even with all of the chunks taken by the sales pipeline, the publishers make a hefty profit per book.
So, what do you do if you are already published and your profit margin and retail costs are skewed against you? I'm going to return to a refrain you've heard in this newsletter and in more detail in The Frugal Book Promoter. And here it is:
Bookstores are not the best place to sell books.
That is true of almost any book except those that are destined to be true bestsellers -- the ones by the John Grishams and Irvings of bookselling fame. The best places to sell books are at speaking and teaching venues where the author is the star, conferences where the author speaks, alternative outlets like catalogs and corporate sales, etc. (Again, all these subjects are addressed in your Frugal Book Promoter, so I won't bore you by mentioning them again.).
In your case, Lloyd -- as the writer of poetry -- the best place to sell books is at your own launch (I understand yours was very successful) and at readings -- perhaps at coffee houses and the homes of friends who will invite all their poetry-loving friends and (because of the subject of your book) all those interested in military matters.
If you truly have 1,100 books in your garage, your run of books was much too high for your genre -- poetry. You may still sell them all but it will take time and persistence. Lots and lots of poetry readings and maybe a promotional gimmick or two. Here's an idea for you. When you write your next book, you might offer this one at a discount when people buy the other as an example. Or do what Amazon does. Offer two related books (yours!) at a special price.
----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.
Even the local Books-A-Million wants 50%. I didn't write my book to make money but to almost give it away isn't something I relish either. No wonder little guys like me have trouble marketing our books . . .
From Lloyd King, author of To 'Nam with Love, a book of poetry
-----
Dear Lloyd:
I can't speak to any specific B&N location [Lloyd lives in LA] but generally stores want 40%. That's what I've been asked for, at least, and that seems to be the norm. Considering retailing in general, this is a low percent; that's why bookstores also get to return their books. That 55% figure appears to be Amazon's requirement and that of some other online stores.
Having said that, this is not so much a problem involving the bookstores' markup (they, after all, have high overhead and must make a profit to exist!). This is a problem that many self- and subsidy authors make: They don't mark their books up enough (gross profit) to cover the costs of doing business. You know, like a promotion budget, discounts for distributors and for wholesalers and, yes, for their own profit.
Printing books on a digital press (POD) makes it more difficult to be competitive because books printed that way cost more and so it is harder to mark up enough to accommodate these costs and still compete with books that are self- or subsidy- or traditional-published in large quantities on an offset press. Printing on an offset press costs less and less per book as the runs (number of books) increase in size. Books printed in huge quantities in China can cost so little that even with all of the chunks taken by the sales pipeline, the publishers make a hefty profit per book.
So, what do you do if you are already published and your profit margin and retail costs are skewed against you? I'm going to return to a refrain you've heard in this newsletter and in more detail in The Frugal Book Promoter. And here it is:
Bookstores are not the best place to sell books.
That is true of almost any book except those that are destined to be true bestsellers -- the ones by the John Grishams and Irvings of bookselling fame. The best places to sell books are at speaking and teaching venues where the author is the star, conferences where the author speaks, alternative outlets like catalogs and corporate sales, etc. (Again, all these subjects are addressed in your Frugal Book Promoter, so I won't bore you by mentioning them again.).
In your case, Lloyd -- as the writer of poetry -- the best place to sell books is at your own launch (I understand yours was very successful) and at readings -- perhaps at coffee houses and the homes of friends who will invite all their poetry-loving friends and (because of the subject of your book) all those interested in military matters.
If you truly have 1,100 books in your garage, your run of books was much too high for your genre -- poetry. You may still sell them all but it will take time and persistence. Lots and lots of poetry readings and maybe a promotional gimmick or two. Here's an idea for you. When you write your next book, you might offer this one at a discount when people buy the other as an example. Or do what Amazon does. Offer two related books (yours!) at a special price.
----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.
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